Kiss of Fire
by KatLeePT
Summary: She didn't expect this, but then again, neither did he. 9 in the author's Ace and Kat series.


She blazes through the waiting room in a flash of black so swiftly that he almost misses her. It's only the sound of the door opening, a sound for which he's been waiting and fretting over coming for over an hour, that makes him look up when he does. "HEY," he calls, "YOU CAN'T GO BACK THERE!"

And then he does a double take. She's the same woman from before, the same woman who he expects has some radically cool power over fire, the same woman who's cussed him out and threatened him, the same woman who took on the enormous Troll last Saint Patrick's Day and won, and the same one who left him the best grass he ever had in that catnip cigar in the parking lot that day. He hasn't seen her in months, and yet now here she is, a cat perched on each shoulder, and as fast and rude as ever.

He hears her snap back some curse in a foreign language. The thin, tabby cat on her right shoulder shakes his head in a silent warning at him, but Ace won't be deterred. "I SAID YOU CAN'T GO BACK THERE!" His mouth drops open when he notices the cat on her left shoulder just before the door shuts behind them. "HEY, IS THAT A MOUSE ON THAT CAT'S HEAD?!" He mutters to himself, shaking his head. That woman gets crazier every time he sees her!

But he can't let her get away with it this time. He can't let her have her run on this place, not when the doctor's elbow deep in a very tricky surgery, not when his newest baby is at stake! He knows he's probably going to get burned - hasn't that English-talking cat already warned him of that very thing many times before? -, but he's got no choice. He can't let his little buddy's chances of survival be decreased because of a stubborn, Irish woman who's always in too much of a rush to see the green around her.

"HEY!" Ace yells again, jumping to his sore feet. He runs after her, throwing the door open so fast that he almost hits one of the vet's helpers.

"She's ready to see you now, Detective Ventura," the girl tells him, but Ace barely hears her as he runs down the tiny corridor. He comes to a screeching halt and almost collides with the back of the woman. He blinks as he finds himself near to eye level with the tiny, grey mouse, who is indeed sitting on the head of an orange tom.

The red-headed woman herself stands stock still in the doorway of the operating room where he left his friend in the best medical hands he knows. Her emerald green eyes are wide and moistening as she gazes at the animal on the sleek, cold operating table. The small, black ram wags his stub of a tail at her and bleats loudly. Her fingers curl, wanting to stroke his head, but she won't go closer to him - not yet, not only the veterinarian says it's okay. She stares at his cut face, his matted fur, and worse of all, his horns. One of his four horns has been completely broken off, and another is jagged.

When she speaks, her demand is cold, level, and seems to hold Death itself in its verbal grip. "Who did this?"

The vet shakes her head. "We don't know yet," Doctor Tregarde sincerely tells one of her oldest friends.

"We need tae find oot. Immediately. So I can burn th' fuckin' bastard tae a crisp."

The brunette studies her calmly. These are not new threats to her; she's heard them all before, every time Kat's encountered a new patient of hers in dire need of their help. But there's more to this little sheep's story than the other woman's ready to believe, she knows. "We actually have another detective on the case right now."

"An'ther . . . Din't tell me it's tha' same cúl tóna ye've been tryin' tae set me up wit'?!"

Tregarde laughs, a gentle, musical sound that makes the ram wag his tail again. "He's standing right behind you."

"I'll give 'im - "

Ace prepares to duck.

"He saved his life, you know, snuck into the circus and got him out of there all by himself."

"Really?" Kat breathes uncertainly. The elder cat's tail gently taps her right shoulder.

"Yes. He's quite a brave man, actually."

Slowly, Kat turns around in the doorway of her friend's operating room, and for the first time, she really looks at the scrawny man behind her. He's as thin as a toothpick, and his wildly colored clothes are torn into shreds. He may have snuck into the circus, but he didn't get out of there without a fight. Another part of her mind is already calculating that if the ram was hurt in the circus, then all the circus performers are guilty of abusing him and probably other animals, too. Of course, she already knows that circuses are places of death and torment. She's been planning to visit the new one in town for a couple of nights, but other cases have kept her away. No longer. She's going tonight.

But right now, she's looking into the wide, wild eyes of a terrified and beaten man. She's looking into the pale, hungry face of a man who's ready to shy away from her, as he should be. But he's also the very same man who clearly risked life and limb to save the poor animal bleating on the table behind her.

Passion flares inside Kat O'Hara, as hot as it's ever been, and almost before she realizes what she's doing, she's reaching out to a scared animal who's a member of the very same species as herself. Ace was ready to duck, but he didn't make it in time. Now her arms are wrapping tightly around him. Her hands are hot, but flames aren't burning his flesh - at least not yet.

He trembles uncertainly in her arms as she yanks him closer. The cats are grinning at him. Even the mouse seems to be smiling. Then her lips are on his, her tongue's thrusting into hot and wild into his mouth, and he's a goner. He melts in her fiery embrace, moaning against the passionate onslaught of her mouth. Her tongue dives deep into his mouth, thrusting against his. He feels every inch of his heat, but then, just as suddenly as the passionate attack began, it's over.

She literally drops him in the doorway. "Good job," she mutters, smiling as she hears the sheep bleating behind her. A fire dances in her emerald eyes in the same, happy, excited pattern of the sheep's wagging tail. Then she steps smoothly over Ace's crumpled form and walks away, leaving him gasping and aching for breath, his mind whirling with the surprise she's given him.

She can hear Tregarde laughing behind her. She's the only woman who'll ever get away with laughing around her, but Kat knows her old friend, who was her grandfather's friend before her, means her no ill, and she helps the defenseless animals of the world as best she can. Her gift is healing while Kat's is destruction, but still, she uses it for the right good.

And so, too, apparently does the man she's left in the floor. She's not sure what his capabilities are, but he's clearly more than she's ever thought him before. That ram is alive because of him, and soon, more animals will be, too. She's got a car full of animals waiting for their shots, but she'll bring them back another day. Right now, she's got a different, more urgent mission.

Ace watches her go, still gasping for air. Finally, he manages to find his tongue again. It's feeling more alive than ever before as he calls after the darkly clad woman's retreating form, "CAN I AT LEAST GET YOUR NUMBER NOW?!" But the only answer he gets is the slamming of doors.

She's gone again. He's not surprised, but he is surprised at how she ravished his mouth. He's never been kissed like that before! He's still thinking about the passion she flooded into him the next morning when he reads the headlines of a circus being burned to the ground with the circus folk trapped inside but all their animals mysteriously - and, he knows, safely - vanishing. Ace smiles around his morning doughnut and wonders when he'll meet his feisty redhead again. And she is his, he vows, even if she doesn't know it yet. The animals are their destinies, and they have made them each other's destiny, as well. He smiles and begins to chatter a new song as he schemes of how he'll prove it to her and how, one of these days soon (he hopes), he's going to kiss a true pyrokinetic.

The End


End file.
